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| I love our one and only family picture....except..... how can I edit out my butt? |
This has been an unusually rough summer as news
of hubby’s company (Bausch and Lomb) acquisition (by Valeant) loomed over our heads. We
knew that the day would come….but surprisingly, It wasn’t long before the ax
brought hubby home! On 8/7, hubby came home with 5 boxes of work stuff,
including his favorite Chinese tea set and puffy casual office slippers. Though we were in for a challenging August
(and onwards), I knew this was a special time for our family. We’ve never
experienced layoffs in our lives (another blessing to count!), so this was a
golden opportunity for the kids (and parents) to learn how life could still be
fun and meaningful without all the stuff and guarantees! While tossing out
online resumes at lightening speed, hubby also spent lots of time playing
“Texas Hold’em” with the kids, cooking delicious foods (like steak and
chinese chicken noodle soup), and hanging out with us! Back in June, we had already
booked a 7-day stay at a modest cabin in Hume
Lake Christian
Center at Sequoia National Park,
so we decided that we should stick to our plans. This was a good opportunity to
get away and not think about job openings and interviews (or the lack thereof,
at this time).
The coordination of 4 beloved friends to care
for our numerous feathered, furry and scaly friends took more communication and
time than the packing itself, and I’m so thankful that all of my buddies (despite
one mom’s extreme fear of any creature with a small head and a beak) offered to
help out without hesitation (they may be regretting now, but I’m out of reach
on all electronic levels, hahahaha). I hope my two sweet chickens don’t fly
over the wall, attack their chickie-sitters, or get stolen/eaten in our
absence….
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| Abbie does NOT like the little triangle house.... We all kept bumping our heads on the walls! |
After a gruelsome, nauseating 7.5 hour trip up
the mountainous terrain to our final destination, we were shocked to find that
our online elegant, 2 bedroom cabin turned out to be a triangle (half-built-looking)
scrawny little homestead with a super hot triangle attic/loft divided by a
piece of board (carving out the website’s touted “beautiful 2 bedrooms”). It
was like ordering a big, fat, juicy premium burger from the menu and being
handed a tiny, dry value-deal cheeseburger…without cheese.
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| Find Abbie among the Card-playing, Dodger-watching boys! |
We eventually accepted our fate and it turned
out we didn’t need all that much space after all, since grandpa Caleb, grandson
Caleb and daddy Mark spent 85% of the day planted on the sofa playing “The
Game” (as it was called by hubby, ‘cuz he doesn’t know what that game was called). Maybe it was Napoleon or Bridge
or something. The excitement wore off after 2 hours for mama Soph, because I
was literally living like the olden-days mom in the black and white 60’s TV
show….I love Lucy?!
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| The kids built super cool forts at Hume Lake! |
There was no cell phone connection, no Texting/WhatsApp/Facebook/Email/Internet
access, no TV (well, there was, but the boys hogged up the Dish-network watching
Taipei vs. Japan Little League baseball & Dodgers games all week long), no
rice cooker/toaster……..not even sofa space for Soph! I didn’t know what to do
all day long! So I read and read and by day 3, I’ve exhausted myself of all my books,
magazines, even reading all print-outs stuck on the cabin fridge, and was sooo ready
to go home. I was bored to tears by Monday night and decided that hubby should
not consider applying to be a Hume
Lake full time employee,
as we originally daydreamed about earlier in the day.
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| ROARING RIVER WATERFALL (from 12,000 ft elevation)! |
The good thing was that every day I walked about
an hour down, then up the mountainous roads to the General Store in order to
experience some type of civilization besides sitting around with my beloved
card-playing, junk-food eating, TV-watching couch potatoes. That was the
highlight of my day! Each day I walked up and down the 45 degree mountain
sweating and realized know why people have so many kids in the olden days…..
because there was simply NOTHING to do all day long! So, people had to DO SOMEthing, right?
Anyways, I insisted we leave the house
at least once a day. We had fun driving on our golf-cart for the free tour and
hearing the Hume Lake tour guide share about the history of this wonderful 320
acre Christian Center. It was a miracle they were able to buy this huge place
back in the 40’s! (http://www.humelake.org/about/hume-history/)
We also
went down to the south side of Hume
Lake and enjoyed hours of
playing in the water! The kids (grudgingly at first, esp. tween boy Caleb) spent
2 hours building their cool forts/moats while Grandpa took beautiful scenic
pictures for his next book. I was just
glad to be out of the cabin! Tomorrow hubby, Caleb and I will go on the Zipline
(glide down a dinky metal wire with minimal safety gear) ride! I can’t wait to
go on this ride because that will be the highlight of my day.
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Can you spot me in the picture? For my birthday wish this year, I’m gonna be adventure,
enjoy God’s surprises, and hang on to the tail end of my 30’s! |
Each day in the mountains felt like 40 hours
instead of 24. The day stands still when you are in the middle of nowhere (ESP.
without mom friends to chat with). I was beginning to have conversations with
the squirrels and tiny pine tree sprouts crossing my path because I seriously
had no one to converse with. Now I think that’s ok because I should savor the
moments that daddy and grandpa are occupying the kids! Abbie doesn’t come to me
and whine, “I’m Bored” every 75 seconds anymore! I suppose Human Nature always complains
of what they do not have at the moment…. Like wanting a Vacation when stuck home
in the daily rat race, and complaining that home is sweet and comfy while we
are stranded on the mountain top (with super dry lips and sneezing
uncontrollably from pine pollens). Yesterday Abbie and I went for a 1 hour
walk…only to get caught in a thunderstorm after we bought 6 Airheads at the
General store….a mile away from our cabin! My first reaction was “this is
horrible!”….but now I think it is extremely memorable, because we’ve never been
so wet and helpless and determined to reach the same goal (Get Home!)
together!! We also raced to pick up the prettiest pine cones lining the
hillsides, and look forward to decorating our front yard with them! What I
thought was Boring was now exciting, and what I thought was exciting (Access to
electronics) were actually Distractions! My perspective slowly began to
change.
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| Simple Pleasures: Making PB and J sandwiches for everyone by the river! |
Today Abbie and I wandered off to the back patio,
looked down, and discovered a slope full of baby pine sprouts! As I beheld
these little ones, a thought hits me, “Wow, if under these harsh, dry, and
rocky conditions, a 2-inch sprout can grow, thrive, and reach 7 or 8 stories
high over time……Then surely hubby, and I, and the kids, can overcome our
challenges however difficult they may seem right now!!” ((^_^))
Who knew that playing with pine cones and transferring little pine
sprouts could bring about such a big inspiration! This trip was beginning to
take on a special meaning.
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| Abbie poses with little sprouts....then we replanted them back! |
God wanted to show me something bigger than my
own self-preoccupation. Another thing that struck me was that, these Sequoia
trees, and squirrels, and Blue jays, and wild mallards, and whatever else was
crawling/flying/growing out there…..Didn’t have a care in the world and didn’t
mind if people were watching them, or if no one was watching them. They enjoyed
BEING, period. They don’t need to please, perform, compare or compete with one
another. Maybe people get away once (or many times a year) to the mountains or
oceans where no one knows them exactly for the same reasons….so they can be
anonymous and carefree and just BE.
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| God's Comforting Words were everywhere during our stay! |
It’s harder to be in this natural state when you
have neighbors, bosses, coworkers, parents from your kids’ school, friends,
relatives, or phone/door marketers all revolving around you on any given day.
It’s actually quite liberating not having to do anything productive but just
vege out all day long. The result of this cherished down time is a super clear
mind… and an enlarged waistline (esp. with the amount of real and junk foods we
consumed)…..unless you hike up and down a steep mountain road 1+ hour a day. I
enjoyed taking pictures of all the wildlife and majestic scenery of mountains,
Giant Sequoias and the Lake ~ And I’m thankful
my Samsung Galaxy was actually really clear and the pix came out great!
So after we descend this mountain, we will begin
a brand new adventure. Not only will it be a new school year for the now
3rd/7th graders, but for hubby and me as well (Gasp! I will be 39 years old
when we leave our tiny triangular cabin on 8/24!). We don’t know where God will
lead us geographically or vocationally, but I know that if we walk with Him
daily and grow spiritually, anywhere is a good place to be!! Thank you all for
your love, prayers, friendship and for just BEING here!
Hugs and blessings,
Soph (Written on 8/20/13)
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| Cute Yellow-legged frog hangs out with blue dragonfly |
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| I wanted tiny bottom-feeder fishes for my birthday ~ So hubby went and scooped away! |
p.s. We came down the hill on my big
“39” birthday yesterday (8/24) and I was blessed with well-wishes from all my dear
family and friends! (^_^) Thank you ALL!!!! (On 8/25/13 at 6:12am)
